In an effort that clearly demonstrates the power of bringing together like-minded people, several members of the Personal Development Partners community have banded together to create a FREE eBook about how to attain Inner Peace!

The idea was originally hatched by Maria Gajewski of Never the Same River Twice, and then several of the other PDP members came on board to create a ton of value, yet give it all away at no cost whatsoever.

Secrets to Inner Peace eBookPatricia Schiavone of Attracting the Best wrote a chapter in the book, and also helped Maria pull the whole thing together, Maria herself also contributed a chapter, and additional chapters were contributed by:

• Ellie Walsh of Living the Law of Attraction
• Lexi Sundell of Energies of Creation
• Aaron Potts (that's me!) of Today is that Day

Considering that today's world can be full of chaos, uncertainty, and even fear, finding Inner Peace is a goal worth working towards, and the chapters contained in this eBook offer some valuable insight into how to do exactly that.

Grab your free copy by simply clicking right here, or clicking the beautiful inner peace graphic, compliments of Gabriella Fabbri. 

The creation of this eBook marks the first collaborative effort by the members of Personal Development Partners, and it represents a mere fraction of what is possible when like-minded people come together for a common cause.

If you would like to become a part of a community where all of the members share the desire to learn, to teach, or to network for both professional and personal growth, then join PDP today and become a part of a group that is going places, rather than just watching the world roll past.

Membership at Personal Development Partners is free, or you can take advantage of a huge amount of additional value by becoming a Premium member, or even taking on one of the valuable, but limited, Thought Leader positions.

Now is the time to join, though, because at the end of June, the lifetime membership options will be coming down. The lifetime memberships give you unlimited access to all of the perks and benefits of PDP membership, yet without a monthly membership fee, so grab those lifetime memberships before June is over.

Many thanks to all of the PDP members, and a special thanks to those who were involved in bringing the valuable Secrets to Inner Peace eBook into reality! 

Learning to invoke your personal development power means allowing yourself to grow into the best 'you' that you are capable of being. Since your best self has unlimited power, don't you think it's time you learned to access that power?

If you knew for a fact that there was a God or a Goddess of unlimited power inside of you right now, wouldn't it be great to learn how to access their limitless abilities? Well, you do have a God or a Goddess inside of you, and gaining access to that power is very much within the reach of each and every mere mortal.

Photo Credit: Jari AhoAccessing your Divine power requires a conscious effort, however. You don't just stumble upon the thoughts, feelings, and actions that re-work the fabric of your own personal space-time continuum. If you want to change your stars (tip of the hat to A Knight's Tale), then follow these steps for invoking your personal development power!

Decide

Your ability to part seas and walk on water means exactly nothing until you decide that you want to part seas and walk on water.

When a magician goes to pull a rabbit out of a hat, do you think that he just waves his magic wand and says "Give me something furry!" or do you think he decides that he wants a rabbit, rather than, say, a weasel? Granted, those types of magic tricks are all illusion, but to even pull off that illusion, the magician still had to decide that he was going to wow the audience by pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Your unlimited power will bring you the unlimited ability to accomplish absolutely nothing unless you first decide what it is that you want to accomplish. Without a decision, your magic wand is nothing more than a fancy drink stirrer.

Commit

It would seem to go without saying that making a commitment to a given course of action is an integral part of bringing that course of action to life, but how many times have you or someone you know decided to do something, but then not followed through?

Commitments to ourselves or to others should not be taken lightly. When you truly commit to something, your attitude should immediately become Failure is NOT an option! If you leave yourself a safety net or a safe way out in case you are unable to fulfill your commitment, then you haven't committed. If you feel the need to have a safety net or a safe way out, then you aren't ready for that commitment, so don't even bother trying. 

Shout

How many people in your circle of influence know what your goals are, or what you are trying to accomplish? Your answer should be everybody! The basic business concept of "networking" works for a reason; because the more people who know what you are wanting to do, the better chance you have of getting it done.

If you want to have your house painted, but you don't feel that you can afford it, shout it out! Tell your co-worker Suzie what you want, and what your concerns are. Suzie might not care, or be able to help you in some way, but that doesn't mean that Suzie's circle of influence won't be able to help you. For all you know, Suzie is going to go home that day to find a flyer on her door that says "We do quality house painting for cheap!"

Now, imagine if you did that with every single person that you know. In fact, you want your house painted so badly that you keep on talking about it over and over again. Eventually, you are going to come across the resources that you need, and it is very likely that those resources will come from a direction that you could not possibly have imagined in advance. 

Listen

What good is shouting for help if you don't then listen to see if anyone responds?

Again, this very likely will not come in a direct form. You might just be strolling down the street and come across someone else who is getting their house painted, so you strike up a conversation with them. It turns out that their painters need another job as soon as possible, and they are willing to reduce their rates in order to get the work.

You might find out about a brand-new company that is offering discount services in order to get their name out in the community, or you might come across a retiree who loves to paint houses, and he would be happy to paint your house for a lot less than the current rates being charged by local companies.

The point is that the more you shout it out, the more you should pay attention to what happens afterwards. Also - be patient. This process is not always immediate, but it is always effective. 

Expect

To get what you want, you have to expect to get what you want. Often, your attitude of expectation is enough to convince other people to help you out, even if they aren't getting something in return!

Your stark confidence in the fact that you are going to attain your desires makes people say "Wow, this girl/guy has it all figured out." When people have those types of thoughts, they are automatically drawn into your networking process, and they become a part of the solution.

I worked a gym once, and the Fitness Manager was not the most ethical health and fitness practitioner, but that didn't stop him from making a huge paycheck because of his attitude of expectation. He would walk into a meeting with potential new gym members with an attitude of "You ARE joining this gym, and you ARE buying personal training!". Before you knew it, people were signing on dotted lines and busting out their credit cards.

People are attracted to confidence and they listen to confident people. By keeping an attitude of expectation that you WILL be getting your way, you will inspire the world at large to make sure that is exactly what happens. 

Believe

The belief that you will get what you want is similar to your expectation, but belief is at a higher level, and speaks more to the lifestyle that you'll be leading once you get what you want, rather than just the expectation that you are going to get it.

• When you believe that you are going to be wealthy, you are already making plans for what to do with that money.
• When you believe that you are going to lose weight, you are already making plans for what kind of clothes you are going to wear, and how your lifestyle is going to change as a result of the weight loss.
• When you believe that you are going to find your soul-mate, you are already making plans for the things that you and him or her will do together, and how wonderful it will all be.

Belief is even more powerful than expectation because not only are you expecting to get what you want, but you are already planning the next stage in the journey. Doing so further empowers you to do things like sticking to your commitment, shouting to more people, listening for more answers, and fully expecting to get whatever it is that you want.

Enjoy

What's the point of all of this if you aren't going to enjoy the journey, as well as the prizes along the way? If the tasks that are involved in you attaining your desires make you sad, confused, angry, or even just bored, then why are you doing them?

When your heart is 100% involved with attaining your desires, then the tasks along the way - although sometimes mundane - will still be done with joy and enthusiasm because you know for a fact that by doing those tasks, you will get what you want.

If your tasks do not fill you with joy and a sense of bountiful expectancy, then that is a big red flag that you may be on the wrong path. You may be working towards something that you feel you are supposed to be doing or that you are good at, but it isn't something that you truly want for your life.

Your journey towards what you want to get out of life should be just as much fun as actually getting there. If you aren't enjoying the ride, you might want to get off at the next stop and find a route that brings you as much joy as you expect the end result to bring you.

Do you see a pattern developing here? Every step that was just listed not only builds upon the previous steps, but it all culminates in the final step - Enjoy - which was the initial goal to begin with, wasn't it?

Whatever it is that we are after in our lives, it is because we want joy and happiness. Yes, we may take part in tasks or actions that are not directly related to our own happiness, yet we take part in those tasks or actions because we choose to do so in order to attain whatever it is that we personally want.

It's OK to be self-centered in life. Being self-centered means that you insist on living life on your terms, as opposed to being selfish, which means that you insist on OTHER people living life on your terms.

Be self-centered, Invoke your personal development power, and Create a wonderful life for yourself.

Do you see how each one of those words is a present-tense action? The present is the only time you will ever have. Please use it wisely.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Discuss this post at Personal Development Partners
Get reminded of this wisdom with Offline Merchandise
Check out my Personal Development Products
Join the Today is that Day Newsletter

If you wanted to go from the east side of town to the west side of town, there would be a defined route to get there, right? In fact, most people would take that route because it is probably the easiest, fastest, most convenient way to get to that side of town. What do you do when that route is blocked, however?

No matter how easy, fast, or convenient any given method is for getting what we want out of life, there are a myriad of things that could jump directly in our way on the road to goal attainment. If we don't have a back-up plan, then we are stuck staring directly at a road block, with nothing left to do but turn around and go home in defeat.

There is another option here, however, and it requires you to look at your goal from a more global perspective, rather than believing there is only one road that will get you to wherever it is that you want to go. Your path to success is NOT a permanent road. There is only one goal, but there are multiple ways to get there.

If you pin your entire hopes, dreams, and desires on one method, one set of circumstances, or one path, then your very happiness in life will be dependent on that one method, circumstance, or path.

It is important not to view that which stands in your way as your 'enemy.' It can often be your best friend, sending you on a detour that takes you around what could have been your biggest stumbling block.

- Neale Donald Walsch 

It is certainly understandable that we tend to see things in black and white. A certain cause will result in a certain effect, and we were all taught as children that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Life does not deal in straight lines, however!

Picture the following scene to illustrate this concept in a real-world, 3-dimensional scenario:

You are standing on one side of a deep chasm, and you need to get to the other side. The chasm is very deep, and there is an old, rickety rope-bridge tied to trees on either side, and the whole thing looks pretty unstable.

You HAVE to get to the other side, though. What do you do?

Most 3-dimensional thinkers would say that they have no choice - it's the rope-bridge or nothing. Why do they think that way? The rope-bridge is a straight line.

In truth, there are multiple ways to get across a chasm, but when I painted the scene earlier, you immediately assumed that you had limited resources. That is exactly what we do in life, which is why we tend to base all of our hopes for success on the results of any one plan of action.

There are unlimited ways for us to get what we want out of life (to get across our chasms), yet people tend to only see one path, or maybe a small handful of paths, and they ignore anything that they personally don't see or don't understand.

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you think that your way is the only way that could possibly work, not only are you being radically short-sighted, but you're being a bit ego-centric, too.

Who are you to say that whatever methods you personally come up with are the best methods for getting what you want?

• Logic and reason don't always work
• Throwing caution to the wind doesn't always work
• Asking others for advice doesn't always work
• Getting educated/informed doesn't always work
• Following the examples of others doesn't always work

In fact, there is NOTHING that always works for every person. Each situation is different, and the outcome of each situation is different.

The phrase "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten" is a truth of our existence that most people believe in wholeheartedly, as well they should. Here's the rub, though:

Someone else could come along and do what you have always done, but get completely different results.

You, on the other hand, need to change tactics.

• If you have been using logic and reason, then perhaps you need to get more esoteric: Meditation, visualization, affirmations, etc.
• If you have always flown by the seat of your pants, and that hasn't worked, then get more "grounded" and try more traditional methods.
• If you have always followed the advice of others, but you still aren't successful, then maybe you need new mentors, or maybe you should just look inside your own mind for your answers.
• If you have spent years getting educated/informed/experienced so that you could be successful, but you still aren't, maybe it's time to put the books down and start applying what you have learned.
• If you have followed the lead of successful people before you, but their methods aren't working for you, why don't you try coming up with your own methods?

The bottom line is that no matter what methods you have been using, if they haven't worked yet, then they probably never will. Open up your mind to the possibility that your path to success may be so confusing, so convoluted, and so backwards and illogical that you could not possibly imagine it in advance.

Once you are in that open-minded state, you may very well be amazed at how clear things suddenly become. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

Discuss this post at Personal Development Partners
Get reminded of this wisdom with Offline Merchandise
Check out my Personal Development Products
Join the Today is that Day Newsletter
Attain your Health and Financial Goals

In all of my years as a personal trainer and a personal development writer, I have never been more convinced about a program's ability to help people take control over their lives more than the P90X Extreme Training System®.

What's surprising, however, is that even though P90X is one of the most effective weight loss and fitness programs out there, the health and weight loss benefits are only part of what people get from using P90X. In addition, they get something that is not as measurable as weight loss and increased health, but just as important - they get empowerment.

Ever since announcing the Million Dollar Body Challenge, and choosing P90X as one of the fitness programs the participants can use, I have been researching P90X extensively. The amount of data available about the program is nothing less than staggering, and here's the best part:

It's all good!

Normally, even a very popular book, video, program, etc., will have a fair amount of people who don't think that much of it. With P90X, however, the only negative comment that I've heard is that it's really hard! That is, of course, why it's really effective.

I have read dozens of blog posts and articles, poured over the company literature, seen multiple videos about the product, and even talked to people in person, and no one has had anything bad to say about it.

So, that is all well and good, and if you haven't already checked out P90X, I definitely recommend that you do. You can see 3 cool videos about it and get signed up for the Million Dollar Body challenge by going right here.

There is more than just health and fitness to be discussed, however - let's talk about empowerment.

The Discipline to Win

The people who successfully complete the 90-day P90X program do it by, quite frankly (and literally), working their butts off for 90 days straight. P90X is not easy, and like any good fitness program, it includes both a structured exercise program and a structured nutrition plan.

The P90X graduates are all people who took control of their lives for 90 days straight and said, "I am going to do this. I will not back down, and I will not give up. I will stay focused on my goal of making it to day 90, and I will not allow myself to be distracted in any way from reaching my goal."

Hmmm…that sounds a bit like the recipe for success in any endeavor, doesn't it? The P90X grads, however, have an edge that most people don't: They know that the system works.

They know that by staying disciplined and on track, that the results will be there. It isn't hearsay to them, it isn't a rumor, it isn't some vague bit of personal development advice - it is a fact.

They know that by staying their course for 90 days, they can accomplish truly amazing things, remarkable things, measurable and noticeable things. They can accomplish things that not only make other people stand up and take notice, but more importantly, things that have empowered them to succeed in any endeavor in their lives.

Their success with P90X, although wonderful in its own right, is just a stepping stone to success in other areas because they now have confidence, and faith, and they understand the power of positive habits. By the sweat of their own brow, they have seen that they can accomplish something that was neither easy, nor short-lived.

They have learned perseverance and discipline; they know the taste of victory and they know it tastes so sweet because they earned it, they worked for it, and they deserve it.

Does all of this mean that you should run right out and buy P90X just so you can be like them? Unless you are in perfect physical condition already, sure that would be a great idea. However, even if you don't, at least take the message of this blog post to heart:

Victory is sweet when you earn it, and you aren't earning it if you are sitting well inside your comfort zone watching the world go by.

Is it all about the chiseled abs, the sculpted shoulders, or the beautiful legs? Nope! However, when you work hard enough to have chiseled abs, sculpted shoulders, or beautiful legs, you suddenly realize that there is nothing that you can't do.

And that, friends and neighbors, is definitely something worth working for, wouldn't you say?

WHAT'S NEXT?

Join the Million Dollar Body Challenge
Check out the P90x Extreme Training System®
Sign up for the free Today is that Day Newsletter
Discuss this post at Personal Development Partners
Get reminded of this wisdom with Offline Merchandise

This is Volume 32 of the Self Improvement and Personal Development Link Love series.

This series will be published weekly and will be comprised of links to quality blog posts that have proven to be extraordinary in their ability to assist, inform, or empower the reader.

As you check out these quality links, be sure to help the authors out by adding their posts to Stumbleupon, Digg, or your favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

1) Ramblings from a Glass Half Full - In his post The Key Ingredient to Sustained Success? Calvin Had it Right, Terry Starbucker keeps us "in the know" with the most basic truth of how to succeed!

2) Jordan Cheng’s Success Journal - The post Why Most Successful People Are Renegades is so dead-on with what I've been telling my readers for a long time - success does NOT come from doing what everyone else does.

3) Martha Beck Blog - No one is a "slave" to their lives, yet many people act like they are. Martha's post Do you really HAVE to do anything? includes a great method of finding what you want, and then CHOOSING to do that.

4) Scott H. Young - Awhile ago I wrote this post about when your environment changes, and Scott's post Self-Improvement Tip: Ride the Wave of Moving Day does a great job of discussing that concept along with some tips on what precisely to do when the time comes for change.

5) How to be an Original - For those of us who use passwords all the time (and who doesn't these days?), Lodewijk's post Tweak your passwords to benefit from them lists some truly original ways to not just remember passwords, but to actually put them to good use!

6) Pick the Brain - If you are on the fence about whether action or desire are the keys to getting what you want, why not try both? In the post The Other Side of Productivity: Coincidences, Synchronicity, and Serendipity, check out a good discussion of the concepts.

7) That's Fit - If you've been getting your motivation for health and fitness from magazines or the television, you probably think that you need to be in at least decent shape to get the ball rolling. That is, of course, total rubbish. Read Exercise is not only for the fit for more info.

Blog Carnivals that have recently included posts from Today is that Day:

Very much obliged to ImprovedLife for giving the Top Post award to the Today is that Day post 5 Not so Q.U.I.E.T. Methods of Personal Growth and Development in the Fifth Edition of the Carnival of Improving Life. Thanks a bunch!

Thanks as always to the authors who create content worth sharing, and to the readers who inspire us to do so!